| dc.description.abstract | This study investigated to what extent spatial release from masking (SRM) deficits in hearingimpaired
adults may be related to reduced audibility of the test stimuli. Sixteen adults with sensorineural
hearing loss and 28 adults with normal hearing were assessed on the Listening in
Spatialized Noise–Sentences test, which measures SRM using a symmetric speech-on-speech
masking task. Stimuli for the hearing-impaired listeners were delivered using three amplification
levels (National Acoustic Laboratories - Revised Profound prescription (NAL-RP) þ25%, and
NAL-RP þ50%), while stimuli for the normal-hearing group were filtered to achieve matched
audibility. SRM increased as audibility increased for all participants. Thus, it is concluded that
reduced audibility of stimuli may be a significant factor in hearing-impaired adults’ reduced SRM
even when hearing loss is compensated for with linear gain. However, the SRM achieved by the
normal hearers with simulated audibility loss was still significantly greater than that achieved by
hearing-impaired listeners, suggesting other factors besides audibility may still play a role. | en_US |
